MUSCAT // Protesters asked the chief prosecutor yesterday to drop charges against as many as 60 people detained on Friday in Sohar after a clashes with Omani securities forces that left one demonstrator dead.
"The Friday's protests were legitimate and no security forces members got hurt. We ask the chief prosecutor to release all the 60 people who were arrested," Salim Al Shizawi, one of the protesters in Sohar, told The National.
One person died and eight others were injured on Friday when security forces fired into a crowd of stone-throwing protesters demanding the right to hold demonstrations. Police had removed them on March 29 from two squares where they were camped.
The chief prosecutor, Hussain Al Hilali, said in a statement quoted by Oman News Agency on Monday that charges would be brought against the protesters for "breaking the law in regard of property damages and disruption".
An official at the office of the chief prosecutor said that the protesters at Sohar "pushed the limits of patience" before they were arrested.
"These people damaged private vehicles, torched government houses, created road tolls by charging drivers money and disrupted traffic. This is not protest but vandalism," said the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
Several motorists confirmed that protesters set up "checkpoints" in Sohar and demanded money.
Fauz Al Ismaili, a Muscat-based businessman, said: "They would not let us pass the roadblock until we paid. I paid 10 rials [Dh95] Friday morning while coming from Dubai. There were about 50 cars behind me waiting."
Friday's death was the second since the protests for political reforms and higher pay started six weeks ago.
Sultan bin Said Qaboos has embarked on a series of reforms, both political and economic, since the protests started. He sacked 12 ministers and granted a 150-rial unemployment benefit, raised civil servants' pay and increased their pensions.
